The ensuing battle-between-two-worlds lays waste to a once-thriving metropolis.

Five years later, Emmett inhabits a bleak, post-apocalyptic landscape with Lucy/Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), Batman (Will Arnett), and what’s left of their former gang (Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern are M.I.A.)

Scene from The Lego Movie Part 2.Source:Supplied

The survivors keep a low profile, shunning anything that’s new or shiny enough to catch the attention of their marauding enemies.

But Emmett’s desire to rebuilds eventually gets the better of him.

When the good-natured anti-anti-hero shows Lucy his dream home, all hell breaks loose — in the form of a badass intergalactic mini-doll named General Sweet Mayhem (Stephanie Beatriz), commander of the Systar System Army.

Under the orders of the formidable shapeshifting villainess Queen Watevera Wa’Nabi (Tiffany Haddish), Mayhem kidnaps Emmett’s friends, transporting them to another galaxy where they are brainwashed by fiendishly catchy pop tunes.

Emmett converts his house into a spaceship and follows.

His mid-air collision with an asteroid is averted, at the 11th hour, with the help of a rugged adventurer, Rex Dangervest (a fun spoof on Pratt’s action-man persona in films such as Jurassic Park and Guardians Of the Galaxy).

Scene from The Lego Movie Part 2.Source:Supplied

Under the tutelage of this stubble-jawed space cowboy, Emmett “mans up” in a bid to save the day.

The resultant showdown causes such a cataclysmic tear in the universe, the reverberations are felt all the way upstairs — to the real world, where Lego overlords Finn (Jadon Sand) and his sister Bianca (Brooklynn Prince) dwell.

Peppered liberally with pop culture references, this sweet, breezy sequel offers moviegoers and their chaperones a few good chuckles,

And the screenplay by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who wrote and directed the original 2017 hit, makes some keen observations about the different ways in which girls and boys play.

But in the end, director Mike Mitchell (Trolls) would appear to be missing a few key pieces. He’s clearly playing with a hand-me-down set.